By Tyler Moran

While Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) promises that his mandatory E-Verify legislation (HR 2885) is a jobs creation bill, the mark-up of the bill in the House Judiciary Committee last week proved that it is anything but. Though the bill passed the committee by a 22-13 party line vote, the debate in committee and amendments offered make it crystal clear the bill would actually yield job losses.

The Dept. of Homeland Security has taken a step toward remedying database error rates by announcing E-Verify “Self Check.” This pilot program will allow people in select states and DC to go online and verify their identity and authorization to work in the U.S.—and to fix any errors before applying for a job with an employer that uses E-Verify. But the pilot program is only one piece of the puzzle in fixing E-Verify and will likely be inaccessible to many—including the low-income workers who most need it.

According to the Government Accountability Office, risks posed by mandatory E-Verify range from encouraging employers to skirt the rules, to job losses for native-born and immigrant work-authorized people alike. Policymakers who want to roll out this flawed program as quickly as possible should heed the report’s warning that “significant challenges remain” with E-Verify.

Though required by law to do so, the Social Security Administration failed to use E-Verify on nearly 20 percent of their new hires. An SSA inspector general's report documenting SSA's myriad mishaps provides proof of what workers' rights advocates have long believed: E-Verify is still not ready for widespread use.

Have you seen "Groundhog Day," in which Bill Murray's character lives the same day over and over? Welcome to the world of E-Verify! Repeatedly, policymakers attach -- to any moving piece of legislation, whether related to the issue or not -- proposals to make E-Verify mandatory.